


The Dreemurr Family

by PhantomDreamshade



Series: Old Stories [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Because we all know how this story goes by now right?, Disturbed Chara, F/M, Gender-Neutral Chara, Pre-Canon, Sad, Sad Ending, The Dreemurrs were just fated to be miserable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-08 15:57:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14697498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomDreamshade/pseuds/PhantomDreamshade
Summary: A lonely prince that wished for an angel.An angel that had a different idea of what that word meant.A broken king that made a mistake he couldn't take back.A bitter, grieving mother that decided to isolate herself from the world.The Dreemurrs, it seems, were always fated to endure great tragedy. Sometimes, family is forever, and sometimes it falls apart at the seams.





	1. They Sent an Angel

Asriel didn’t look up from his dinner plate as he picked at his slice of butterscotch-cinnamon pie with a fork. His parents watched him intently, but the prince didn’t seem to notice.

“Asriel, dear,” Toriel said gently. “How was school today?”

“It was okay,” Asriel said, still not looking up. Toriel gave Asgore a concerned glance.

“Did… anything interesting happen?” Asgore asked.

“Not really,” Asriel said.

Toriel sighed, seeing that the indirect approach was apparently not going to work, and got up to kneel next to her son. “Asriel,” she said, looking at him from below and tilting his chin up so he would look at her. “Sweetie. Please, tell us what is bothering you. Your father and I hate seeing you sad like this.”

Asgore got up as well and put a hand on Asriel’s shoulder. “Please, son. You know you can tell us anything, right?”

Asriel looked away shyly. “It’s nothing,” he said quietly. “You shouldn’t have to worry about it.”

“We are your parents,” Asgore said. “It is our job to worry about it. Now please, tell us what is on your mind.”

Asriel hugged himself, embarrassed. “I just… the other kids at school treat me weird.”

Toriel frowned immediately. “Who? Asriel, is someone bullying you?”

“N-No, no, it’s not like that,” Asriel said. “It’s almost the other way around. Everyone is always extra-super-nice to me. And they stop talking to each other when I come into the room. It’s almost… it’s almost like they’re scared of me? But… but I’m not a scary person, am I?”

Toriel picked Asriel up out of his chair and sat him on her lap, and Asgore came over to hold them both. “Of course not, dear. You are a very wonderful and kind young man.”

“They are all probably trying to be respectful, since you are the prince,” Asgore said, rubbing Asriel’s back. “They do not mean to be off-putting, I am sure.”

“I know,” Asriel sighed. “It’s just… I’m still a kid, too. And I just wish sometimes they’d treat me like everybody else instead of ‘yes, Prince Dreemurr,’ ‘of course, Prince Dreemurr,’ ‘I’d be happy to, Prince Dreemurr.’ It’s… lonely.”

Toriel and Asgore gave each other a concerned look before hugging the little prince tightly. “Do not worry, my child,” Toriel said. “Just give it time. I am sure you will make some good friends very soon. You will see.”

Asriel nuzzled into the crook of her arm. “Okay, mom.”

* * *

 

Asriel stared up at the glittering ceiling of the Waterfall wishing room. He looked around - no one was here. Sighing, he sat down on the ground and leaned back to look at all the little shimmering crystals. He’d never seen real stars before, but he knew that monsters used to make wishes on them. Maybe this would be enough.

“So, um…” he said aloud, immediately feeling silly as his soft voice echoed around the room. He looked around once again to make sure he was alone. “I don’t… I don’t know how this is supposed to work, so I’ll just say my wish and if you could, can you tell the real stars to make it come true please?” The crystals twinkled in the low light, and Asriel decided that was probably going to be the best silent reply he could ask for.

“Okay, so… I really want to have some friends. But, everyone treats me like I’m special all the time, so I was thinking… maybe I just need someone who’s special like me to be friends with. We just learned about the prophecy in school today, so… I was hoping that you could tell the real stars to ask the Angel to come to the Underground really soon? Because then, maybe, the Angel and I could be friends and together we could make everyone happy. So, um… thank you?”

He looked up at the crystals quizzically, but they only kept twinkling in response. Asriel sighed once more and started walking back home.

He thought he remembered his dad saying once that on clear nights, sometimes you could just barely see the stars through the barrier in the room behind the throne, so he decided to go and look since it was almost bedtime. He peered out - the tunnel to the surface was sloped and washed in a weird, pulsing energy. He walked close to it, and he found the magic pushing him back. He couldn’t really see any stars; just a faint, golden twilight shining through the barrier. It was a very large tunnel - he couldn’t look at the whole thing at once, even if he stepped back.

Asriel jumped as he heard a dull thump behind him somewhere. He looked around one of the pillars in the room. “It sounds like it came from over here…” he said to himself.

And there they were. A person with long brown hair that hung down to cover their face, and wearing a green-and-yellow sweater that looked so much like Asriel. This was them - the Angel. The stars really had heard his wish!

He squatted down next to them, beaming from ear to ear before remembering that this person had made an ugly  _ thud _ sound. “Oh, you’ve fallen down, haven’t you?” he asked, sliding his hands under their shoulders. They made a little hmm sound, confused. “Are you alright? Here, get up.”

The human’s hair still covered their face, but they were standing now. They mumbled something under their breath, still dazed. “Chara?” Asriel had no idea what that word meant, so he assumed it must have been their name. “That’s a nice name. My name is…” he paused for a second. They didn’t need to know he was a prince yet, right? “My name is Asriel. It’s nice to meet you, Chara.”

* * *

 

“Hey, stop! N-No don’t tickle me under my ears - pfft, haha! No! No, n-no more - uncle! Uncle!” Asriel unsuccessfully tried to shove Chara off of himself as he shook with laughter, their expert tickle-fingers hitting him in all of his most ticklish places; and unfortunately, Asriel had quite a few of those.

“Now, now, children,” Asgore called from the hallway. “Not so rough, please.”

Toriel appeared out of her bedroom in a beautiful, flowing purple dress complete with a pearl necklace. Asgore immediately blushed pink. “Oh, Tori… you look absolutely divine, dear!”

“Oh, and you look so handsome in that suit, Fluffybuns,” Toriel said, giving him a nuzzle on the neck. Asgore blushed more, rubbing the back of his neck shyly. Toriel’s face lit up. “Oh, Gorey, do not get…  _ sheepish _ on me now!”

Asgore gave his wife his best pity laugh as Asriel and Chara both groaned “Ugh, mom!” in unison. She giggled to herself as Asgore leaned down and nose-nuzzled her. Their children turned away in disgust - why were parents so gross?

“Are you sure you two will be alright for a few hours while your father and I are at the nose-nuzzle tournament this evening?” Toriel asked, sneaking out of her husband’s arms and walking over to her children.

“We’ll be fine,” Chara said. “Go have fun. Azzy and I will be fine.”

“Alright,” Toriel sighed, stroking their hair a few times. “Do not hesitate to contact us with the new ‘cell phone’ device that Mr. Gaster made for us! You remember the number you must put in, do you not?”

“Yes, we do,” Chara sighed, trying to usher them out of the door. “And it’s also on the fridge if we forget,” they added, cutting her off before she could ask another question. They were going to be late if they lingered any longer.

“Be good, you two!” Toriel called as Chara closed the door behind them.

The human turned to Asriel with a sly grin as soon as their parents were gone. “Do you wanna turn on the lights off and tell scary stories?” they asked.

“Uh… o-okay,” Asriel said. That was about the last thing he wanted to do right now, but he doubted Chara was going to give him a choice in the matter anyway. “But first, could I, um… talk to you about something?”

Chara gave him a quizzical look and sat down next to him. “Sure.”

“So, um…” Asriel began, fiddling with his fingers nervously. “Since, um… since mom and dad adopted you and everything, and you started calling them mom and dad, I was wondering… if instead of being friends, I could be your… brother? Maybe?”

Chara tilted their head and gave him the half-confused-half-amused look Asriel had become so familiar with. “What a silly question. Aren’t you already?”

Asriel’s eyes began to sparkle with tears. “R...Really?” Chara nodded, and Asriel leaned forward to hug them, nuzzling his face into their shoulder.

“Ugh, why are you such a crybaby?” Chara sighed, pushing him away. Asriel wiped at his eyes.

“Sorry, I’m just… really, really happy. Thank you.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Chara said, rolling their eyes. “Now, about those scary stories…”


	2. What They Deserve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chara embraces their destiny as the Angel, for better or worse.

Chara lied awake on their side, watching their brother’s chest rise and fall slowly on the bed across the room from them. Monsters were such strange creatures. Sure, Asriel was naive and a crybaby and he just did not have a tolerance for scary stuff (it probably didn’t help that his parents didn’t either); but, he was fun to tease if nothing else. And he was sweet. And he made Chara smile sometimes, even though they thought that was an ability they had lost long ago.

Chara had been suspicious at first, naturally, but after years of being unable to find any truly glaring flaws in the denizens of the Underground, they had eventually accepted their new life. Perhaps the monsters truly were different from the humans they had left behind. Perhaps there really was something genuine behind their smiles instead of cold, black, worthless ooze. Perhaps they weren’t worthy of Chara’s hatred like the humans were.

If that was the case, then life was more unfair than even they had believed. How dare the humans lock the monsters away and forget about them, just so they could hoard the sun and stars and fresh air for themselves. They deserved far worse than being shoved in a lightless cave - they all deserved to be rotting in hell, every man, woman, and child.

Chara was no exception, they knew. They never pretended to be anything other than what they were, but the monsters were always either too naive or too stupid to see it. Once upon a time, they would have called themself a monster, but now they prefered ‘demon.’ It was more accurate, anyway. The same black hatred ran thick through their veins like it did in all of humanity, perhaps even more so; how ironic that Chara seemed to be the only one who noticed.

While Chara had accepted a life Underground, they weren’t satisfied by it in the least. The monsters seemed content to sit around and wait for a miracle, but the thought of the humans parading around in the sunlight above made Chara dig their nails into their skin. They should have all been burning, bleeding out onto the ground, gasping for breath. It was what they deserved.

The more they thought about it - and the thought was almost constant, nowadays - the more it consumed the fallen human, eating away at them from the inside out. It had made the tiny, black void they had been born with grow into a seething maelstrom of hatred, one so acidic and powerful that Chara was sure someday it would start oozing out of their skin. Eventually not even Asriel could force a smile through it, because all they could think about was how the prince should be enjoying himself on the surface, standing atop the ruins of humanity.

One day, though, the smile returned. Asriel - poor, sweet, naive Asriel - couldn’t see it for what it was. He was overjoyed, completely missing the twisted venom suffused in Chara’s grin. Thoughts of death and despair had wormed their way into the human’s brain, and now they had roots far too deep to destroy. Chara would have their revenge yet.

“Howdy, Chara! Smile for the camera!” Asriel came into the room, and the smile appeared. “Ha, this time I got YOU! I left the cap on… ON PURPOSE! Now you’re smiling for noooo reason! Hee hee hee!”

That wasn’t true, of course, but Chara didn’t bother correcting him. “Do you remember father’s last birthday?” they asked instead.

“What? Oh yeah, I remember,” Asriel said. “When we tried to make butterscotch pie for Dad, right? The recipe asked for cups of butter… but we put in buttercups instead. Yeah, those flowers got him really sick. I felt so bad. We made Mom really upset. I should have laughed it off, like you did,” he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

Sweet, naive Asriel. Didn’t he know that was the difference between him and Chara? The thing that made them believe he deserved the surface? “Uh, anyway, where are you going with this?”

Chara glanced at the camera in Asriel’s hand, still recording audio. They pointed to it; better safe than sorry. “Off,” they instructed.

Asriel looked at the device in his hand. “Huh? Turn off the camera…? Okay.”

The camera turned off with a click, and Chara motioned for Asriel to sit next to them on the bed. “You know how the barrier works, don’t you?” Chara asked.

Asriel gave them a quizzical stare. “Sure? It’s what keeps us all down here.”

“Keep going,” Chara told him.

“Um… we need… we need seven human souls to break it,” he said quietly, and Chara motioned for more. “And… um… if a monster has a human soul, they can pass through to the other side.”

“Good,” Chara said. “They can pass through to where the humans are. To where more human  _ souls _ are.”

“Well… yeah,” Asriel said, growing more and more uncomfortable as the conversation progressed. “Why does that matter?”

“You silly goat,” Chara said. “Don’t you see? With one soul, you can pass through the barrier. You can collect six more. And then, you can destroy the barrier forever.”

Asriel backed away a little. “B-But… Chara, we don’t have a human soul,” he said.

“Of course we do,” Chara chuckled, pointing at their chest.

“What?! No, no, I couldn’t - I would never--”

“Oh, don’t start crying,” Chara rolled their eyes. “This isn’t as hard as you’re making it out to be. I’ll eat the flowers, you’ll take my soul, and then we’ll go to the surface together and get six more. Simple.”

“Chara, I don’t…” But Asriel could see it in their eyes - that glimmer that meant they wouldn’t take no for an answer. Asriel couldn’t argue against it. No one could.

* * *

 

It was honestly kind of funny, just how much flowers could hurt. The absurdity of such a trivial thing causing so much pain wasn’t lost on Chara as they drifted in and out of consciousness. Their head felt like it was stuffed with cotton and molasses, their blood ran hot and sluggish through their veins, and their stomach twisted in agonizing knots. Their skin was slick with sweat and flushed with fever, and the human only heard every other word their family pleaded to them. But pain was temporary, they knew. They weren’t afraid to die - they only felt pure, unbridled glee. This would be the day humanity ended.

It was a strange sensation - to die. As their soul drifted out of their chest, they saw the world in a strange haze. It was some bizarre alternate sense; they couldn’t really see, or hear, or feel, but they could still make out the world around them vaguely.

And then, their senses returned in a blazing flash of light and heat and sound, and they found themself in a body once again. They looked down to see purple robes and white, clawed paws. They were looking down at their parents, such a strange sensation after looking up at them for so long. Their faces were overwhelmed with grief and confusion and fear. There wasn’t any time for this.

Chara looked at the limp, lifeless form on the bed. They would bring it with them, they decided, and show Asriel the side of humanity they knew so intimately. All his doubts would be washed away then, and Chara could finally give the humans what they deserved.

Chara felt the first rays of sunlight they had known in years soak down past Asriel’s fur, and they could feel their brother’s awe and wonder. There would be time for that later - after Chara took it away from humanity. After they ground them all into bloody paste and sent them all to burn in hell.

And there it was - the village. The place Chara wanted to see aflame more than anything, the tiny little world they despised with every fiber of their being. They walked to the center, Asriel merely along for the ride. They set the body down in the flowers, the one tiny refuge Chara had found here. They would spare the flowers, they decided. A single memento to remember this wretched place by.

The screams came next, and the accusations. The glint of metal and flicker of flame, all swirling together into a mindless red rage as the sun set and stained the sky the color of blood. Then came the first spark of pain, on their leg. How trivial it felt now; they were so far beyond pain, so far beyond humanity. They were the Angel of Death.

Chara raised their hand. They would burn now, be torn asunder, crushed into a pulp, struck down as they fled. They had no intentions of settling for six - they would have all of humanity, all of their suffering, all of their  _ death _ before they freed the monsters.

But it didn’t come. Instead, they felt more pain - a sting here, a burn there, inconsequential at first but mounting to something dangerous nonetheless. Why were they in pain? Why weren’t the humans dropping like flies, watering the flowers with their blood?

“I don’t - hrrk! I don’t want to hurt you,” Asriel’s voice said. That wasn’t right. Why couldn’t Chara move, why couldn’t they speak? “Please, this… this is just a misunderstanding.”

“Monster!” “Beast!” “Child-Killer!” “Demon!” “Burn it!” “Kill it!” “The beast must die, don’t let it speak!”

Chara felt dizzy as their borrowed legs stumbled away. Their borrowed arms still clutched something - their own lifeless, worthless body. What was going on? It was too unclear, too hazy. There was just the sound of staggering footprints and the color red and a never-ending cloud of pain.

“M-Mom? D… Dad?” Asriel’s voice said. Chara couldn’t see through the tear-blurred eyes. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to… I didn’t want to… They didn’t… understand…”

Dissolving into dust was a most interesting feeling, Chara decided.


	3. The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grief can be a dangerous thing.

It was just a little funny how slowly Asgore’s brain caught up to the situation, considering how vividly he could remember the details. He remembered Chara’s last breath, and their crimson soul hovering above their chest. He remembered Asriel taking it and marching through the barrier with the human’s body, despite Toriel telling him to wait.

He remembered Asriel stumbling back into the Underground, Chara’s lifeless body still in tow. He remembered Asriel’s new body - taller, stronger, older-looking, except that he had Chara’s eyes - covered in burns and blood. He remembered watching as his son turned grey and crumbled to dust, leaving the human’s body to tumble into the garden.

It was only then that his sluggish mind caught up, but even then Asgore couldn’t really remembered what happened. He remembered some unearthly howl escaping his own throat, and his wife falling to the floor and sobbing. He remembered staggering through the dust ( _ Asriel’s _ dust, his  _ son’s _ dust) to the barrier, to look out at the last few rays of bloody twilight.  _ What sort of demon could do this? _ he wondered to himself. Whatever had killed his son, his beloved Asriel, was out there standing under the first stars of the night now.

It wasn’t right.

He shambled out of the throne room, walking straight past Toriel as she grieved on the floor. “G… Gorey? Where are you - Asgore wait, where are you going?” she asked through her sobs. She stood up to follow him.

He didn’t answer her, because he didn’t really know. He found himself with a phone in his paw, a number he didn’t remember dialed on it. He held it to his ear.

“This is Doctor Gaster. How may I help you, Your Majesty?” the voice on the other end asked.

“Hello, Doctor Gaster. Please notify the kingdom that there will be an important address in three hours.” His voice was utterly hollow.

“...of course, Asgore. I am sorry for your loss.” Gaster hung up.

Toriel took Asgore’s hand and nuzzled into his shoulder, so he wrapped his free arm around her absently. “Asgore, my dear, I… I am not sure I am ready for a public appearance yet,” she said, gripping his hand even tighter.

“It needs to be done,” Asgore said. There was something ominous about those words, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

They walked into the living room and sat on the couch together, just holding each other silently. There were things they needed to talk about, of course - important things - but there just wasn’t anything to say.

When you know a person so well, it’s so easy to assume that they’ll be on the same page during situations like these. It was ironic, almost, the level of miscommunication the king and queen had in those three hours of silence.

Three hours passed, and Asgore stood up. Toriel grabbed his hand, trying to pull him back to the couch. “Gorey, please,” she said, voice quiet as a mouse’s, “I can’t do this yet.”

“Then stay,” Asgore said simply, walking away. Toriel curled her knees up to her chest and switched on the tv. Her husband appeared on it a few moments later.

“Monsters of the Underground,” Asgore said. It was surprising how calm his voice was. “I regret to inform you that the human child who fell down here so many years ago, Chara, has passed away from a mysterious illness.” Faces fell in the crowd - it was news no one had wanted to hear, but everyone had been prepared for. No one was surprised.

“And while I do not enjoy being the bearer of bad news, another tragedy has struck this evening.” His voice was perfectly flat and composed for that one sentence. “Asriel…” It finally began to crack. The wood of the podium began to splinter under Asgore’s clawed paws as he tried to stop the tears rolling down his face. “My son took Chara’s soul and passed through the barrier.”

The crowd looked up immediately, surprised. “When he returned, he was covered in wounds from the humans that reside outside the mountain.” The air grew still. “He died in the garden,” Asgore said, sobbing fully now. Toriel thought she could hear a crack of thunder find its way inside their home from the outside world.

And the sobbing stopped suddenly, almost as if Asgore was holding his breath. It was funny just how easily grief and rage could boil together into one giant, uncontrollable, damning storm.

“We’ve suffered enough at the hands of humanity,” he said, more to himself than to those he was addressing. Something dark and broken seeped into his voice as the storm inside grew stronger and stronger. He looked up, the dead part of his heart making his eyes go dark. He could see the darkness in his people, as well. It wasn’t their son that had died, but their hope. The king would not allow humanity to scar his kingdom like they had scarred him. 

“I, King Asgore, hereby declare war on humanity.” The tears were gone from his voice now, leaving something cold and hard. Toriel sat bolt upright on the couch, trying to figure out how she had so clearly mistaken what he had said.

“General Gerson, your position is no longer a figurehead. I want you to oversee the formation of a Royal Guard. Every human that falls here  _ must _ die. Once I collect seven souls, I will use them to destroy the barrier permanently and then bring humanity to an end, once and for all. They will hurt us no more.”

Asgore could see the change below. He watched hopelessness shift to anger, and anger to determination. With it came some fragile sort of hope.

Toriel got up from her seat and quickly walked to her husband as he left the podium. The crowd dispersed behind him.

She looked at him with some mixture of shock and disgust. “Asgore, what are you doing?”

“It needs to be done,” Asgore repeated himself from earlier. The storm had passed, and now he just felt… blank. Hollow.

“How could you say those things?” Toriel said, shaking Asgore’s shoulders and forcing him to look at her. “Did you just forget them?”

Asgore blinked. “Who?”

Toriel felt some sort of desperate rage bubble up through her chest. “ _ Chara! Our child, Asgore, our child! _ ” She shook him harder and harder, but it did nothing to shake loose the numbness that had crusted over Asgore’s heart.

“Chara is gone now,” Asgore said, staring straight through Toriel into some abyss she couldn’t see. “We need seven more.”

Asgore was awoken from the spell he seemed to be under when Toriel slapped him full across the face, sending him reeling into the wall. He blinked and looked at her.

“How can you possibly condemn all of humanity when we raised a human  _ as our own _ ?” Toriel said. Flames flickered from her fingertips.

“Chara is gone now,” Asgore said. He felt like a broken record. “It doesn’t matter anymore. Humanity took our homes, our freedom, and now they took  _ our son _ , Tori. They must pay.”

“I know that Asriel is dead!” Toriel screamed at him. “And so is Chara!  _ Chara _ , our other child! Why are you acting as if Asriel was the only thing we lost tonight?”

Asgore’s face turned grim. “We did lose something else tonight. All their hopes and dreams died tonight, Toriel, I could see it in their eyes. I had to give them something to keep them going, Tori,  _ anything. _ ”

“Not  _ this _ ,” Toriel said, her voice raw. She turned away.

“...I am going to bed. We are going to discuss this in the morning, and you are going to  _ fix _ it.” She stormed off, and Asgore was left alone for the weight of everything to smother him to sleep in the hallway.


	4. The Price of Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toriel leaves.

“I can’t, Tori, I  _ can’t _ !” Asgore shouted. “If I go back on this, it will  _ destroy _ them. Our people have to come first, Tori, you know that!”

“They will have to understand and move on,” Toriel said, glaring at her husband. “They’ll survive. I’ll go and prove it myself.”

“Tori - Tori, wait--” Toriel slammed the door in Asgore’s face as she made her way towards the capital. How could the man she married be such a  _ fool _ ? He had just promised the genocide of the entire human race. No one wanted that, not really. She’d prove it, he’d come to his senses, and they’d figure a way out of this whole mess.

She stopped the first person she met on the streets of New Home. “Your Majesty,” he said, bowing deeply. “My condolences for your loss. The prince will be missed.”

“Thank you,” she said, just a little confused. Asriel wasn’t the only thing she’d lost last night.

“I want you to know that you and your husband have my full support,” the man said. “The humans will pay for what they’ve done.”

Toriel blinked. “I would, of course, like to see the humans that killed my son be brought to justice. But you cannot possibly condone the destruction of the entire human race, can you?”

The man looked similarly confused. “Of course, Your Majesty. We’ll never be safe or free as long as they exist. We gave them ample opportunity to settle things peacefully, and it’s clear they won’t listen to reason. They murdered a  _ child _ , Queen Toriel,  _ your _ child. They’re just… evil. There’s nothing else to it.”

Toriel resisted the urge to slap him. “Have you so soon forgotten that one of my children was a human?”

The man’s eyes turned sad. “...I haven’t forgotten. Clearly, Chara was the exception to the rule. But if it’s us, or them… I think we’ve suffered enough. Good day, Your Majesty.”

Toriel stared after the man, a feeling of dread beginning to pool in her stomach. She stopped the next person she saw - a tall, squid-like woman and her son.

“My Queen,” she said, bowing. “My deepest condolences.”

“Thank you,” Toriel said. “Tell me, madam… how do you feel about Asgore’s plan to destroy humanity? I’d like your honest opinion.”

“Oh, I think it’s brilliant,” she said. Toriel felt her heart skip a beat. “I haven’t seen the sun in years, and my son here never has. It’s disgusting what those humans did to us, and even if we did return to the surface, we won’t be safe until they’re all dead. I couldn’t possibly take my children up there after what they did to poor Asriel!” She gave Toriel a pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, dear. We’re all behind you. The humans won’t get away with killing the prince.”

Toriel stopped the next person she met.

* * *

 

“Toriel… you’re home,” Asgore said, walking to put his arms around her as she walked in the door. She shoved him away and the king shrunk back as if he’d been burned. “...They disagreed with me, didn’t they? They… they all think I’m a beast.”

“You  _ are _ a beast,” Toriel spat at him, and Asgore shrunk away further. “...and they did not disagree. I searched for hours. Every person I spoke with was on board.”

Asgore’s eyebrows raised. “I… I thought…”

Toriel shoved past him towards their room. Asgore followed a few moments later to see her shoving her things into a box. He felt his heart stop beating for a second.

“T-Tori… what are you doing?”

“Do not call me that,” Toriel said, voice bitter. She snatched a couple of her robes from the bureau and made for the door. Asgore followed close behind, not daring to touch her.

“Toriel, where are you going?” Asgore asked. He sounded desperate.

“Away,” she said, opening the door.

“For how long?” Asgore said. She didn’t answer, merely slamming the door in his face. “Tori… Tori, wait, please…” Asgore broke down sobbing, sliding down to the floor.

Toriel walked down to the basement, where she found the coffin. It had been engraved with a crimson heart. She shoved it open.

Chara had been wrapped up in linen bandages, perfumed to deter the rot. Toriel tore them open. Her child was there, pale and cold. She picked up their lifeless body and nestled it among the clothes in the box she held, closing it so that no one could see.

“Do not worry, my child,” she said softly, heading back up the stairs. “I will give you the rest you deserve.”

Toriel walked through the streets of the capital, ignoring greetings and condolences and concerned stares. Only now did she see that she belonged to a kingdom of beasts and killers. She wanted nothing to do with any of them. They didn’t deserve her. They didn’t deserve Chara.

She walked through Hotland, and Waterfall, and Snowdin. Soon, she reached the door to the Ruins, open wide as if inviting her into its dusty, familiar halls. She closed the doors behind her and bolted them. She didn’t want to be found.

Toriel kept walking on her sore feet, through their old abandoned home and past puzzle after puzzle, until she reached the little patch of sunlight at the very beginning of the Underground. She started digging.

* * *

 

“Ah, King Asgore,” Gaster said, walking into the throne room. The king was watering a little patch of flowers by the throne. “Do you have a moment? I’d like to tell you and the Queen about the new project I’m starting. If it goes well, you won’t have to… kill…”

Gaster finally noticed that Asgore’s shoulders were shaking lightly. Gaster walked up to him and took his hand. The king just kept looking at the ground.

“My Liege? Where is the Queen? Perhaps she can…”

“She’s gone, Gaster,” Asgore said quietly.

Gaster’s eyesockets widened. “You don’t mean…”

“She left,” Asgore said, and Gaster sighed with relief. At least she wasn’t dead. “She left me and she is never coming back. I do not even know where she went. No one does.”

“It’s… it’s going to be alright, Your Majesty, you’ll see,” Gaster gave him a pat on the back.

“You were saying something about a new project?” Asgore said.

Gaster cleared his throat. “Ah, yes. I have recently come across some very interesting data, and I believe with some time and resources I may be able to create a functioning time machine! Imagine the possibilities, Asgore - why, we could stop the barrier from being created in the first place and--”

“Is it dangerous?” Asgore asked, dead serious. He looked Gaster straight in the face.

Gaster averted his eyes. “...Of course not, Your Majesty,” he lied. This was important work, and he didn’t want Asgore worrying about his safety. To Gaster’s surprise, Asgore pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. The scientist started blushing. “Your Majesty?”

“Make sure that you’re safe,” Asgore said, not letting go. “I have lost everything else. I cannot lose my oldest friend, too.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Gaster said, gingerly returning the hug.

* * *

 

Toriel sat in her rocking chair, reading a book. The only sound was the chair and the crackling of the fireplace. It was a bizarre change, living in such a quiet house. She missed the sound of her children playing around the house. She missed the muffled bustle of New Home outside.

...she missed her husband’s voice.

_ Ex-husband _ , she corrected herself. How could she love so vile a man? She wouldn’t allow him to continue his plan. If another human ever fell… she would make sure they and Asgore never met. She would keep them safe.

She visited the grave again; there were no humans there but her own, buried beneath the soil. A bed of golden flowers had sprung up there, and Toriel had paid much attention to taking care of them. She didn’t have Asgore’s green thumb, but luckily the plants seemed hardy. They took care of themselves, for the most part, as long as she gave them a little water.

* * *

 

Toriel spent years alone in that old house. She decided to start humming while she was cooking, or cleaning, or watering flowers, just to give her voice something to do, lest she lose it completely. Then, she started reading her books aloud, so that she wouldn’t forget how to speak.

The monsters of the Ruins never spoke to her; they avoided her, actually. Toriel didn’t mind. She didn’t want to have to answer questions. It was hard to tell how long she waited there; years? decades? centuries? It was impossible to tell, for without Asriel, she no longer aged. The only way to mark the passage of time was by the humans who fell, one by one. The humans who left, one by one.  The humans who died, one by one.

One day, Toriel found herself at the exit of the Ruins, back pressed against the cold door. She sat there in silence, contemplating… everything. She wasn’t prepared for the sound of knuckles rapping on the door, and she jumped up immediately.

“Who is there?” she said instinctively. The knocker paused.

“dishes,” a voice said. Is was deep and male. Toriel immediately thought of Asgore, but shook the thought from her mind. This wasn’t Asgore. This was…

This was a knock-knock joke. Toriel’s eyes lit up with anticipation.

“Dishes who?”

“dishes a very bad joke,” the voice said, and Toriel froze for a brief moment.

Then she started laughing. She laughed so hard that tears began to blur her vision and she doubled over, deprived of oxygen. The joke was hilarious, of course, but that wasn’t the reason she was laughing so much.

It was just nice to hear another voice.


End file.
